Montague Burton Building

Last updated
Montague Burton Building
"Gay Spar", Montague Burton Building, Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland.jpg
The Montague Burton Building in 2018
Open street map central dublin.svg
Red pog.svg
Location in central Dublin
General information
TypeRetail
Architectural style Art Deco
Location Dame Street, South Great George's Street
Coordinates 53°20′39″N6°15′53″W / 53.344047°N 6.264647°W / 53.344047; -6.264647
Current tenants SPAR
Construction started1929
Completed1930
ClientBurton department store
Design and construction
Architect(s)Harry Wilson

The Montague Burton Building is an Art Deco commercial building on the corner of Dame Street and South Great George's Street in Dublin, Ireland. It was constructed between 1929 and 1930 and designed by architect Harry Wilson. [1]

Named after Montague Burton, the founder of the Burton department store chain, the building was originally home to an early Dublin branch of the menswear retailer. It later became a Philips electrical store.

As of 2023, it is home to a branch of SPAR that is known colloquially as "gay SPAR" by members of the city's LGBT community. This is because of its close proximity to The George, which is one of the city's oldest gay bars. [2]

Architecture

The building is typical of early 20th century Burton stores. Montague Burton was known for selecting prominent city centre corner sites. Leeds-based architect Wilson designed the Dublin store in the Burton in-house style, which was almost always Art Deco. [3] The building is ornately decorated with faience tiles, ornamental capitals and a decorative cornice. This contrasts with the mainly restrained facades of Victorian and Georgian buildings on Dame Street and George's Street. [4]

The building is an example of post-First World War retail development that makes use of wraparound shopfronts. Its roof, while having a mansard appearance from the street, is actually flat and incorporates five pyramid-shaped roof lights. [1] The entire building is on the city's list of protected structures. [5]

Related Research Articles

The architecture of Ireland is one of the most visible features in the Irish countryside – with remains from all eras since the Stone Age abounding. Ireland is famous for its ruined and intact Norman and Anglo-Irish castles, small whitewashed thatched cottages and Georgian urban buildings. What are unaccountably somewhat less famous are the still complete Palladian and Rococo country houses which can be favourably compared to anything similar in northern Europe, and the country's many Gothic and neo-Gothic cathedrals and buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dublin 2</span> Postal district in Leinster, Ireland

Dublin 2, also rendered as D2 and D02, is a historic postal district on the southside of Dublin, Ireland. In the 1960s, this central district became a focus for office development. More recently, it became a focus for urban residential development. The district saw some of the heaviest fighting during Ireland's Easter Rising.

Burton is a British online clothing retailer and former high street retailer specialising in men's clothing and footwear. The company was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but became a trading name of Arcadia Group Brands Ltd, part of the Arcadia Group. Sir Philip Green acquired the Arcadia Group in 2002, and it became the sole owner of Burton. In 2021, Boohoo.com acquired the brand after Arcadia went into administration.

Silver End is a village in Braintree, Essex, in England. It was conceived as a model village by the industrialist Francis Henry Crittall who established a Crittall Windows Ltd factory there to manufacture components for metal windows.

Harry Norris was an Australian architect, one of the more prolific and successful in Melbourne in the interwar period, best known for his 1930s Art Deco commercial work in the Melbourne central business district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dame Street</span> Street in central Dublin, Ireland

Dame Street is a large thoroughfare in Dublin, Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McWhirters</span> Historic site in Queensland, Australia

McWhirters is a heritage-listed former department store at Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as McWhirters Marketplace, McWhirters & Son Ltd, and Myer. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daly's Club</span> Former Gentlemens club in Dublin, Ireland

Daly's Club, with premises known as Daly's Club House, was a gentlemen's club in Dublin, Ireland, a centre of social and political life between its origins in about 1750 and its end in 1823.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palazzo style architecture</span> Imitative of Italian palazzi

Palazzo style refers to an architectural style of the 19th and 20th centuries based upon the palazzi (palaces) built by wealthy families of the Italian Renaissance. The term refers to the general shape, proportion and a cluster of characteristics, rather than a specific design; hence it is applied to buildings spanning a period of nearly two hundred years, regardless of date, provided they are a symmetrical, corniced, basemented and with neat rows of windows. "Palazzo style" buildings of the 19th century are sometimes referred to as being of Italianate architecture, but this term is also applied to a much more ornate style, particularly of residences and public buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dame Lane</span> Road in Dublin, Ireland

Dame Lane is a narrow thoroughfare in Dublin, Ireland, with a variety of historical and literary associations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burton's, Abergavenny</span> Historic site in Wales

Burton's, 16–18 High Street, Abergavenny is a shop constructed for the Burton's tailoring company in 1937. The design, by Burton's in-house architect, Nathaniel Martin, is Art Deco in style. The building is listed Grade II* for its "exceptional interest and rarity as a well preserved Burton's store which retains almost all of its 1930s external detailing."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fownes Street</span>

Fownes Street is a street in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland that runs from Wellington Quay in the north to Dame Street in the south.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Plaza (Dublin)</span> Office building in central Dublin, Ireland

Central Plaza, also known as the Central Bank of Ireland Building for its former tenant, is an office building on Dame Street in Temple Bar, Dublin. It was the headquarters of the Central Bank of Ireland from 1979 to 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balnagowan House</span>

Balnagowan House also known as Wendon or Bealnagown House is a historic building in Glasnevin, Dublin. It is considered the first individual house built in the international style in Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Countess Markiewicz House</span> Apartment building in Dublin, Ireland

Countess Markiewicz House is a flats complex named after Countess Constance Markievicz in Dublin 2, Ireland. It was designed by Herbert George Simms in an art deco style and was constructed between 1934 and 1936. It is one of many examples of twentieth-century housing designed by Simms in Dublin and is listed on the record of protected structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parliament Street, Dublin</span> Street in Dublin, Ireland

Parliament Street is a street located on Dublin's Southside. It runs from the junction of Dame Street and Cork Hill on its southern end to the junction of Essex Quay and Wellington Quay on its northern end where it joins directly onto Grattan Bridge and subsequently Capel Street.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunlight Chambers, Dublin</span> Italianate style office building in Dublin, Ireland

Sunlight Chambers is a commercial office building on the corner of Parliament Street and Essex Quay in the Temple Bar area of Dublin. It was designed by architect Edward Ould in an Italianate style and was named after Lever Brothers' Sunlight detergent brand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kodak House</span> Art Deco building in Dublin, Ireland

The Kodak Building is an Art Deco building in the inner suburb of Rathmines in Dublin, Ireland. It was designed by architects Donnelly, Moore and Keatinge in 1930 and was built in 1932. It was originally the warehouse for Kodak Ireland and now houses an advertising agency and other businesses.

Chancery House is an apartment building located between Chancery Place and Charles Street West in Dublin city centre. The complex was built by Dublin Corporation as part of a corporation housing scheme in 1934-5. Built in the art deco style, both the house and park have been noted as adding "an element of variety to the architectural tone of the area". The complex is bounded by Chancery Street to the north, along which the Luas Red Line runs.

References

  1. 1 2 FUSIO. "Montague Burton, 19-22 Dame Street, South Great George's Street, Dublin 2, DUBLIN". Buildings of Ireland. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  2. Dillon, Brian (2018-11-12). "21 tweets that perfectly sum up the cultural importance of Gay Spar". GCN. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  3. Skinner, Joan S. (1997). Form and Fancy: Factories and Factory Buildings by Wallis, Gilbert & Partners, 1916-1939 (1st ed.). Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p.  215. ISBN   0853236127.
  4. "1930 – Montague Burton Building, Dame Street, Dublin | Archiseek - Irish Architecture". 17 February 2010. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
  5. "Record of Protected Structures". Dublin City Council. 2018-09-05. Retrieved 2022-07-13.